LG's Mini View shrinks things down for better one-handed use

Sometimes a big phone is just too big — LG's Mini View scales it down

So you bought a giant phone. In the case of the LG G Pro 2, you've bought yourself a 5.9-inch phone. That's a whole lot of phone. And at times it might be too much, leaving you longing for simpler days, when you were able to use your phone with one hand.

(We'll save for another time the idea that perhaps you should have bought a smaller device.)

LG's got your covered with the G Pro 2. With a simple swipe across the on-screen buttons you can enable Mini View, which shrinks things down to a more manageable size.

And that's just the beginning, really. Mini View has some flexibility to it.

Using Mini View on the LG G Pro 2

Turning on Mini View is a simple matter — just swipe across the on-screen buttons to activate. If you swipe to the right, the window will appear on the right-hand edge of the G Pro 2. Swipe to the left, and the window will be on the left.

Note the triangle in on the top corners of the window. Tap and drag it and you'll change the size of the Mini View window. By default, it starts out at about a 3.75-inch diagonal — roughly the size of a display in early 2010. You can scale the Mini View window up to about 5 inches — roughly the size of a high-end smartphone today.

And you thought the iPhone display was small? LG's Mini View takes things down even more.

It's worth noting that LG's not the first with this feature — Samsung tucked it into the Galaxy Note 3. But LG's Mini View is enabled by default. They use different gestures, too, due in part to the Note 3 not having on-screen buttons. On the Note 3, you do a sort of quick in-out move from the edge of the display.

One way or another, though, it's a cool little feature on a big, big phone.

It's cool that LG is slavishly copying Samsung, but it's lame that people are constantly giving Samsung crap for modifying Android while LG does the SAME EXACT THING. It's ridiculous. LG isnt even trying, yet every post we hear about how the G2 is so much bettter than Samsung devices when LG is doing everything they can to be Samsung.

+1 on the companies "imitating" each other. It means more competition in the market, and that's good for consumers. Plus, I think the method LG is using to trigger the mini view is more efficient than how it's done on the Note 3. I've found the Note 3 motion can result in "accidental" triggers when playing games like Scramble with Friends.

Who cares Samsung makes the better use of the larger screens period, Samsung rules em all period and they will never be beaten period lol ok think that is enough.
Being serious yes LG blatantly copied Samsung but it's a handy feature for larger screens so why not adopt it.
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It's unbelievable how LG started, copying Samsung down to a hair - software and casing design. Now, that they finally set apart a bit with G2 they can call themselves "original" brand.
Sorry, but if don't see it this way, you are ignorant.
The good thing is that LG really grew big and strong, that I would buy their G2 over S anything anytime - not to mention G3 that is still to come.

When are westerners ever gonna calm down and realize this is common eastern / Korean culture at work. These two are not American based companies. They are based in South Korea and do a pretty amazing job of bringing products to all parts of the world that people love and use. LG is pretty smart IMO to mirror Android's most successful licensee. Remember, they are in busine$$ to make money too.
LG is actually doing a better job than Sammy now in the shrinking bezel war. Copying the one handed feature on the Note 3 is a no brainer. I use it often on my N3. Very useful for a big screen device.
I hope Apple, HTC, and LG release S-pen knockoffs soon too. I'm a consumer who absolutely loves his Samsung Note 3. I want better stuff from everybody that leapfrogs what I already have.

Western companies do this, too. All the people screaming "copying!" are just parroting the line because they see other people saying it online. The truth is that all companies "copy" each other. There are whole companies who's sole purpose is to help them do it. It's called market research. These people complaining about it have no idea how business works, or the positive benefits of competition for the consumer.

I get the whole "war on bloat" thing, but this statement is taking it too far. Not all "added features" qualify as bloat. Personally, I don't *want* every OEM to release *every* phone with pure AOSP. Think about all the great features that you would lose out on:

Dynamic Notifications (Moto X)
Knock On (LG)
Smart Stay (I actually use this one a lot)
Swipe Away Notifications (You can thank CyanogenMOD for that one)

I'm not going to waste time by posting every feature that somebody other than Google came up with. You get the idea, I hope. We *should* complain about "bloat" apps and such on these phones, but let's not classify every feature added on to AOSP "bloat" and summarily decide that we "hate it" as such. That's just taking the anti-bloat argument to a completely silly place.

"Copy this, copy that." People are never satisfied. One company does something, another does the same or "one ups" them and they are wrong. We all should have just stayed with the basic cellphone model. They all did the SAME EXACT things.

Android is OPEN, and people are complaing what Samsung/LG/HTC/whoever has done to Android. Well if you don't like their product because they "copied" something, then your wrong. Base your decision on liking the product on their design, customer/device loyalty for updates and features they include on their device. If you say you like AOSP or Stock Android more then either download a Launcher, buy a Nexus, or Root your current/future device to run Stock/AOSP Android.

I know this example has been used A LOT of times, but its like vehicles, each company creates something and then some/all will follow suit because they want to show they are not out of date or living in the past.

I know everyone has their opinion and thats fine, post it or whatever. I'm just tired of seeing people say someone is copying this and that. If they copied, fine they copied. I guess AndroidCentral copied other websites with their comments section.... Yes, but its because PEOPLE want a place to comment on an article.

If a company is doing something, its cause the people want that feature.

Sorry for my rant, like I said earlier, its just I see way too many people put a company down for mimicking a feature another company has implemented in their device.

Now for my actual comment:

How about we just get back to smaller screens? I feel like 5 inches is as big a screen should get with on-screen buttons. 4.5 - 4.7 inches with capacitive buttons. I currently have a Galaxy S4, and I recently picked up my good old Galaxy S2 (AT&T variant) and realized how much more comfortable it was to use! I love my S4, but I wish companies would go the Sony route and make "Mini" or "Compact" variants of their phones with the "No Compromises" attitude Sony has. My next phone just might be a Sony cause of this reason.

As for smaller screens, that seems to be a function of market power. The larger screens keep selling like crazy, so all the OEM's keep trying to get in on the action. Sony has apparently noticed a "gap" in the market, and are moving to cover it. Good for them. Bad for consumers, though, that that might be the only option at this screen size.

That's actually kind of clever, I could see my dad using something like that......not a slam there, but for people who might struggle a bit with the large screen sizes which've become standard these days, that's a neat feature.

I'll say this, unless there is a stylus that comes with the phone, I don't see the point of large screen phones. For me, my big screen is taken care of with my Nexus 7. Also, portability is something I value when I get a phone, but maybe that's just me.

For me, anything more than 5 inches is going a bit overboard. Great phone for those who like big screens, but I just can't get on board with the LG G2 or phones that size.

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